Vials are containers with a lid for accommodating solid medicines such as tablets, capsulated drugs, etc. In hospitals or drugstores, vials filled with tablets customized according to patients are delivered to such patients or their attendants. Conventionally, the task of filling vials with tablets is manually done by pharmacists. That is, the pharmacist selects one medicine among different types of stocked medicines according to prescription, counts the quantity of the selected medicine and fills a vial with the selected medicine. Then, the pharmacist seals the vial and hands over the same to patients.
However, such task of manually selecting the medicine and filling the vial requires much work and is thus burdensome. In this regard, Patent Document 1 suggests a medicine accommodating and removing device, which automatically performs serial operations from selecting a medicine to filling a vial. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a device for capping a vial, which is used as a part of the medicine accommodating and removing device.
Patent Document 1: International Laid-Open Patent Application No. WO2005/011563
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-240738
The device disclosed in Patent Document 2 is configured to be used for a vial with a lid having threads on the outside and inside of the lid. According to the device disclosed in Patent Document 2, the lid is held by the outside thread and is rotated while being pressed against the vial body, thereby fastening the lid to the vial body.
Further, vials including a lock mechanism for preventing children from taking medicines are already known in the art. The device disclosed in Patent Document 2 also discloses an example of such a lock mechanism. The lock mechanism disclosed in Patent Document 2 is configured so that a protrusion that regulates rotation is provided on an inside portion of a lid and a claw of a vial body engages the protrusion. According to the vial disclosed in Patent Document 2, if the lid is rotated and the thread reaches a terminal end, then the protrusion of the lid climbs over the claw to lock the lid.